How do you police a lawless country?

A Scottish former chief constable is fighting crime and corruption in Afghanistan

Two weeks after Ian Oliver was put in charge of justice and security in Helmand province, 13 people were killed by a suicide bomber 500 yards from his police headquarters. Last week nine Afghan police officers were murdered at a checkpoint.

If Oliver didn't realise his new job was taking him to the most lawless place on earth, he knows now. As head of rule of law, security and justice within the Foreign Office-led provincial reconstruction team, he is responsible for training police recruits and restoring a justice system annihilated by the Taliban.

It is, the former Grampian chief constable admits, the most daunting challenge of his career.

"To many, the Afghan police are regarded as uniformed predators, corrupt individuals who dabble in the drugs trade and would sell their weapons to the highest bidder," he says. "It will take anything up to 30 years to build a conventional police